rdcrsn: Player Update: December 2008

Russell Carson came into 2008 as a Pocket Fives Triple Crown winner and one of the most respected MTT players in the world – and the Canadian has taken his game to even greater heights over the last 12 months.

He has been as high as #2 in the P5’s Rankings and although he hasn’t got back up to that position, he remains a regular in the top 30 and enjoyed a truly world-class January which put him up over $250,000 within the first 4 weeks of the year!

In no particular order, he managed: outright victories in the PokerRoom Monthly $1k for a cool $141,000, the PokerStars $200 Re-Buys for $39,000 (which he chopped with James Campbell), seconds in the PartyPoker $50k GTD ($12,273) & the Stars Sunday Second Chance ($26,578), a third in the Full Tilt $1million GTD for $82,986 & a cash in the EPT Dortmund! (37th for $13,942). This phenomenal heater was picked up on by the Poker King and thrust ‘rdcrsn’ back into the poker limelight with numerous interviews that are widely available online.

As we prepare to enter 2009, Carson has not slowed down and now has over $1.5million in prizes on Stars & FT combined. Other highlights from the year include two seconds in the $200 Re-Buys (over $67,000), victory in the $100 Re-Buys ($21,628) & the FT $100k GTD version ($29,125) as well as a 12th in WCOOP Event #29 ($500 NLH Re-Buys) for $15,882. We thought now would be a good time to update Carson’s progress as he is currently in another rich vein of form and his training for pokerpwnage.com has put him back on the map of MTT poker. In November he pulled out one of the 2nds mentioned in the $200 Re-Buys as well as victories in the PartyPoker High Roller $30k for $18,200 & the Titan $50k Super Tuesday for $13,500, as well as coming runner-up in the PokerRoom Euro Grand Prix for a further $10,507 (the scene of his $141,000 triumph in January). And this month he has followed this up with victory in Full Tilt’s ‘Fifty Fifty’ $50 NLH Event for $10,726 as rdcrsn continues to pillage the online tournament scene.

In his Bluff Magazine blog he admits that he was disappointed to make just the one cash at the WSOP (a minor $10,762 in the $2,000 NLH) but given his online results over the course of the year it’s hard to see how Carson wont go on to greater success in live events during 2009.